Wealth, Poverty and Social Mobility in Restoration Spain: A Critique of Liberal Society in the Novelas contemporáneas of Benito Pérez Galdós

This thesis analyses seven of Galdós’s key Novelas contemporáneas – Lo prohibido (1884-1885), the four Torquemada novels (1889-1895), Ángel Guerra (1891) and Misericordia (1897) – in the context of contemporary discourses regarding the socio-economic changes which Spanish society had experienced from the 1830s. Adopting a socio-historical approach, this study emphasizes the variety of ideologies which Galdόs’s contemporaries embraced in response to the changing socio-economic circumstances of their own time, as well as the author’s own engagement with these diverse currents of thought. The particular focus is to examine Galdós’s preoccupation in these novels with questions relating to the creation and distribution of wealth in the modern money-centred society of Restoration Spain. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 analyse in detail the historical account of the ascent of the bourgeoisie which Galdós presents in Lo prohibido, the Torquemada series and Ángel Guerra. In these novels, Galdós links the wealth of his bourgeois characters to the speculative climate which resulted from the economic policies of the liberal State. In Ángel Guerra and the last of the Torquemada novels, Torquemada y San Pedro, Galdós brings into focus the social effects of the most representative of these liberal policies, Mendizábal’s 1835-1836 desamortización. I examine Galdós’s engagement here with the intense contemporary debate on this controversial policy. Chapter 4 analyses Galdós’s treatment of the themes of pauperism and charity in Misericordia in relation to contemporary discourses on the cuestión social. This study reveals Galdós’s perception, which he shares with other contemporary authors, of living through a time of profound social transformation

Revisiting ‘place’ in a realist novel: ‘Thinking space’ in Galdós’s Torquemada en la hoguera (1889)

Departing from the premise that Galdós’s close engagement with space and place deserves to be at the forefront of scholarly attention, this article provides an in-depth study of their significance in Torquemada en la hoguera. It begins by analysing the relationship between the novel’s locations and the real world, demonstrating that the author codes the city of Madrid to express social concerns and promote reader engagement. It then proceeds to examine the public and private spheres, before highlighting the “place of the imagination” in the novel. It reveals that, as in Galdós’s press articles, reality is used as a springboard in Torquemada en la hoguera and, drawing upon recent theories, it posits that places serve as a framework for engaging readers with contemporary concerns and as an imaginative springboard for Galdós. They trigger what is effectively a “thinking space” for the author and it is through unravelling their significance that we can fully appreciate Galdós’s psychological sensitivity, the novel’s modernity, its symbolic value, and imaginative depth. The article concludes by proposing that Galdós’s works deserve to be re-examined as “Novels of the Geographical Imagination” and urges readers to revisit the significance of space and place therein

[Review] López Mondéjar, publio (2020) Pérez Galdós en el laberinto de España: fotografía y sociedad, 1843-1920

Entre los eventos programados por la Consejería de Cultura y Turismo de la Comunidad de Madrid para conmemorar el centenario de la muerte de Galdós, destaca la exposición Pérez Galdós en el laberinto de España: Fotografía y sociedad, 1843-1920, organizada en colaboración con la Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Como comisario de la exposición y autor de su catálogo, el renombrado historiador de la fotografía Publio López Mondéjar ha reunido 140 fotografías de Galdós – muchas de ellas inéditas – y de la España de su tiempo. En el catálogo, López Mondéjar ofrece una impresionante crónica gráfica de la vida de Galdós y de las transformaciones sociales que España, y particularmente Madrid, experimentaron entre 1843 y 1920. Uno de los aspectos más sobresalientes de esta obra es la forma en que López Mondéjar entrelaza su narración de la evolución de Galdós como escritor y como hombre en la España isabelina y de la Restauración con la historia del desarrollo de la fotografía en España. Este enfoque nos permite apreciar el papel que la labor de los fotógrafos tuvo en la creación de la imagen pública de Galdós. Como nos muestra López Mondéjar, el creciente prestigio como novelista que Galdós fue adquiriendo en vida fue acompañado de una proliferación de retratos suyos en la prensa gráfica o en las populares postales de personajes ilustres

[Review] Santiago Díaz Lage (2020) Escritores y lectores de un día todos: literaturas periódicas en la España del siglo XIX

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Rich and poor in Nineteenth-Century Spain: a critique of liberal society in the later novels of Benito Pérez Galdós

A full exploration of Galdós's treatment of questions relating to the creation and distribution of wealth in the modern money-centred society of Restoration Spain